Le Maitre, D.C., et al. (2019). “Impacts of invasive Australian acacias on the fynbos biome and the Western Cape Water Supply System.” Water SA, 45(4).
Le Maitre and colleagues’ quantification of the ongoing water-yield loss from invasive alien plants in the Western Cape Water Supply System. The paper models that invasive alien plants already reduce the system’s assured yield by approximately 38 million cubic meters per year, rising to approximately 130 million cubic meters per year within 45 years without clearing. Riparian pines consume roughly 200 mm per year more water than adjacent dryland fynbos, and nitrogen-fixing acacias alter nutrient-poor fynbos soils in ways that degrade the native vegetation’s capacity to regenerate.